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South Korean Fans Bid Farewell to Internet-famous Panda

A convoy carrying giant panda Fu Bao leaves after a farewell ceremony at Everland amusement park in Yongin on April 3, 2024. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
A convoy carrying giant panda Fu Bao leaves after a farewell ceremony at Everland amusement park in Yongin on April 3, 2024. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
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South Korean Fans Bid Farewell to Internet-famous Panda

A convoy carrying giant panda Fu Bao leaves after a farewell ceremony at Everland amusement park in Yongin on April 3, 2024. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)
A convoy carrying giant panda Fu Bao leaves after a farewell ceremony at Everland amusement park in Yongin on April 3, 2024. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

Thousands of well-wishers gathered Wednesday to bid farewell to the first giant panda born in South Korea, Fu Bao, who left for China in a high-tech non-vibrating vehicle typically used for transporting semi-conductors.

Beijing has long used "panda diplomacy" as a form of soft power, and Fu Bao's parents -- Ai Bao and Le Bao -- were gifted to South Korea in 2016 by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Fu Bao -- which means "treasure that gives happiness" -- was born in 2020 and is a celebrity in South Korea, with her videos on the zoo's YouTube channel attracting around 500 million views, Agence France Presse reported.

The Everland amusement park, where Fu Bao lived, says approximately 5.5 million people -- around one-tenth of the entire South Korean population -- have visited the park to see her.

Thanks to her popularity, the number of visitors to Everland's Panda World doubled last year to 2.15 million, compared to 1.07 million in 2020 before Fu Bao's arrival, the theme park said.

Fu Bao welcomed her younger twin sisters last year, named Rui Bao and Hui Bao, whose births also triggered an outpouring of excitement online in South Korea.

Beijing only loans pandas to foreign zoos, which must usually return any offspring within a few years of their birth to join the country's breeding programme.

Under an agreement between Seoul and Beijing, Fu Bao's parents can stay in South Korea until 2031, but her twin sisters, like Fu Bao herself, must return to China before they turn four years old.

"Fu Bao left Everland at around 11 am," the zoo said in a statement, adding the panda will leave for China via the Incheon International Airport on a chartered plane.

Before leaving Everland, the panda bid farewell to some 6,000 South Korean fans at a brief ceremony.

She was moved on a special non-vibrating vehicle typically used for semiconductor transportation, the facility added.

Zookeeper Kang Cheol-won, who is famous in the South for his bonding with Everland's pandas and is widely referred to as their "grandpa", read out a letter at the ceremony, the park said.

Kang is accompanying the panda on the journey to China until Fu Bao arrives at the country's Shenshuping Panda Base in Sichuan Province, Everland said.

"You will be forever (my) baby panda, even after 10 or 100 years. Thank you for coming to grandpa. I love you Fu Bao," Kang said in his letter, referring to himself as her grandpa.

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Varieties

Cape Town Divided Over Plan to Remove its Monkeys

The baboons’ presence has affected house prices on the Cape Peninsula, as they raid bins and kitchens and poo on properties. (Nic Bothma/Reuters)
The baboons’ presence has affected house prices on the Cape Peninsula, as they raid bins and kitchens and poo on properties. (Nic Bothma/Reuters)
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Cape Town Divided Over Plan to Remove its Monkeys

The baboons’ presence has affected house prices on the Cape Peninsula, as they raid bins and kitchens and poo on properties. (Nic Bothma/Reuters)
The baboons’ presence has affected house prices on the Cape Peninsula, as they raid bins and kitchens and poo on properties. (Nic Bothma/Reuters)

At the edge of Da Gama Park, where suburb meets the mountain, Cape Town’s baboons have caused conflict, with a furious debate raging over whether the monkeys can coexist with humans or whether they should be kept away.

On Monday, Cape Town’s city council has said it will “imminently” round up two baboon troops coming into repeated conflict with residents. The animals will be sterilized and permanently moved to a newly constructed sanctuary.

The plan has been fiercely criticized by animal rights activists, who say the monkeys should remain roaming freely, and that less destructive options have not been properly considered, according to The Guardian.

Cape Town’s baboon problem has been brewing since the 2000s, after the city stopped culling troops in the late 1990s after pressure from the public. But in the past two years it has reached boiling point.

A 2025 census found that the population had grown by a third since 2000, from 360 baboons to 493, now living in 12 managed troops.

As a result of the population boom, troops of chacma baboons on the city’s peninsula regularly rip off roof sheeting, sneak into unlocked cars and raid food pantries.

Some monkeys are now staying up late into the night to break into homes in Simon’s Town and nab snacks from convenience stores. Residents can no longer barbecue or host garden parties for fear of the marauding baboons.

“It’s depreciated property values because it’s hard to sell a house when it’s covered in baboon feces and paw prints, and you know they’re coming every day,” said Justin O’Riain, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Cape Town who has long studied the local baboons.

Cape Town’s geography is partially to blame. Much of the problem is confined to the Cape Peninsula, a narrow sliver of land stretching from the city center to Cape Point.

Here, baboons are boxed in between the steep, protected area of Table Mountain national park and the sprawling urban development that stretches to the Atlantic Ocean.

“The underlying issue is that baboons will seek low-lying land. That is their natural drive – it’s better access to water and more productive vegetation,” said Joselyn Mormile, who leads the Cape Baboon Partnership (CBP), a nonprofit organization that works with the city and local conservation authorities to manage the baboons.

“But throughout the peninsula, we’ve developed most of those places. It’s a constant battle between the two,” she noted.

Varieties

Exhibition in Sweden Highlights Lives of Sami People

The ladjogahpir, a traditional hat historically worn by Sami women. (Johan Ylitalo/Kin Museum)
The ladjogahpir, a traditional hat historically worn by Sami women. (Johan Ylitalo/Kin Museum)
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Exhibition in Sweden Highlights Lives of Sami People

The ladjogahpir, a traditional hat historically worn by Sami women. (Johan Ylitalo/Kin Museum)
The ladjogahpir, a traditional hat historically worn by Sami women. (Johan Ylitalo/Kin Museum)

More than a century after they were first documented, the stories of the Sami people return to the spotlight in an art exhibition in Kiruna, northern Sweden.

The exhibition revisits the work of artist Johan Turi, who wanted his 1910 book Muitalus samiid birra (An Account of the Sami) to set the record straight about the lives of Europe’s only recognized Indigenous people, according to The Guardian.

Turi is widely regarded as the first Sami author to write about Sami life in his own language, but until now his pioneering works had not been on display for almost 100 years.

To mark the handover to the Swedish government this week of a long-awaited report by the Truth Commission for the Sami People on abuses committed by the state against the Sami, his writings, drawings, paintings and Duodji (traditional Sami handicraft) now form the center of an exhibition at the Kin Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiruna, the area in which he used to live.

The title of the exhibition, On the Ugly and the Beautiful, draws from a quote by Turi, who died in 1936, about his belief that everything, positive and negative, has a place to be shown.

The museum’s director, Maria Lind, said an Account of the Sami, which was published in Sami and Danish before being translated into Swedish seven years later, is “about Sami life, small and big – external and inner life.”

Turi was born in Guovdageainnu (Kautokeino), the Norwegian part of Sapmi, in 1854 but as the imposition of formal national borders began to have a bigger impact on the lives of the Sami, his family, who were reindeer herders, moved to Kiruna.

“He had dreamed about writing a book about the Sami with the purpose of making the population in Sweden understand how difficult it was for the Sami because those were difficult years,” Lind said, citing the arrival of settlers, industry, including mining, and the railway.

“He wanted the king to read his book because he felt if the king knew then things would change. Most likely the king did not read his book, but it became a success,” she added.

The problems facing Sami people today are not dissimilar to those Turi would recognize.

Industry – especially the search for rare earth minerals and wind energy – is an ever-increasing threat to reindeer herding and nature.

Anti-Sami rhetoric is on the rise, including from political leaders, despite the seeming progress symbolized by the truth commission and its report, which will be presented on Wednesday. Similar commissions have also been held in Norway and Finland.

But unlike in Turi’s time, there is now the escalating impact of the climate crisis, particularly visible in the Arctic and northern regions.

As the report, which is intended to form the basis for reparation and reconciliation discussions, is handed over at Mid Sweden University in Staare, the Kin Museum will put on a special tour of the works, after which there will be a reading of testimonies at the culture house next door.

Varieties

GEA Chairman Unveils New Promotional Video for Riyadh Season 2026

The seventh edition of Riyadh Season kicks off on October 21. (SPA)
The seventh edition of Riyadh Season kicks off on October 21. (SPA)
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GEA Chairman Unveils New Promotional Video for Riyadh Season 2026

The seventh edition of Riyadh Season kicks off on October 21. (SPA)
The seventh edition of Riyadh Season kicks off on October 21. (SPA)

Chairman of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Turki Alalshikh unveiled a new promotional video for the seventh edition of Riyadh Season, creatively showcasing some of the experiences and events awaiting visitors from Saudi Arabia and around the world.

The video takes viewers on a journey through a number of Riyadh Season zones and events, featuring the atmosphere of Boulevard World alongside major international sporting events, including tennis and boxing, through visual storytelling that highlights the variety of experiences brought together in the Saudi capital.

The video focuses on the emotions that accompany the Riyadh Season visitor experience, capturing the excitement, enjoyment, and joy of the journey from the moment of arrival, through exploring its different zones, events, and experiences, to the lasting memories visitors take away with them.

The seventh edition of Riyadh Season, which kicks off on October 21, features a diverse lineup of entertainment and sporting events and experiences, including boxing, wrestling, UFC events, and the Six Kings Slam tennis tournament, alongside concerts, comedy shows, and experiences for children and families.

It also features a number of zones and destinations, including Boulevard World, Boulevard City, The Groves, Via Riyadh, Al Suwaidi Park, Wonder Garden, Dirah Winter, and Farm Market.